Dive Brief:
- Medicare's pilot program, Independence at Home, has provided $25 million in savings and has 14 practices nationwide participating in the program, Kaiser Health News reports.
- The program provides primary care at home and focuses on patients with chronic health conditions and disabilities - the most expensive Medicare beneficiaries.
- Participating physicians must meet three of six performance goals, such as reducing ER visits and hospital readmissions.
Dive Insight:
Eligible practices to join the program must make at least 200 house calls to patients with traditional Medicare who have been hospitalized and had rehab or home healthcare within the past year.
Patients must have difficulty with two daily living activities, such as eating or dressing. Providers must be available 24/7 and make at least a monthly visit, or more if the patient is sick.
Medicare reimbursement for a house call is close to that of an office visit but doesn't include travel time or extra time required for complex patients, and most house call doctors can only see about five patients a day.
Three practices dropped out of the program to date, but nine practices earned bonuses totaling close to $12 million, including a $2.9 million payment to the Visiting Physicians Association in Flint, Michigan.
“House calls go back to the origins of medicine, but in many ways I think this is the next generation,” CMS Chief Medical Director Patrick Conway, who oversees Independence at Home, told KHN.
The program has been authorized to run through October 2017.